Morloc

Aye, I've seen one of the military-looking fellows shoot up an alien that was unwounded and kill it. I was completely shocked!

Thank you, you are correct. At some point, I was switched over to the pistol, and that'd explain the very short ranges! Just picked up this game a few days ago, but a veteran of the 1st three old Microprose XCOMs and the first Firaxis XCOM. Also did UFO: Extraterrestrials with the BMan mods. Just getting my feet wet here. Thanks for the answer!

I've seen on a few occasions that sniper rifles were functioning incorrectly. Their range was significantly reduced. It wasn't something environmental as other weapons were working as expected. The Aimed and Snap Shot TU costs were also lower than they should have been for a sniper rifle. Reloading corrected this when it happened.